February 02, 2017

What's your favourite feature of the V6?

Okay, so we all love the fact that it’s not just faster than the old Samsung/Cisco TiVo boxes, but actually BLOODY FAST, sometimes surprisingly so, but what else do you like about it?
Me? I love the fact that I can watch recordings from either of my V6s on my main telly. With my old set up I had a 500Gb TiVo in the basement that my wife would watch her favourite movies on (recorded in SD as it’s only a 24in TV) but inevitably we’d decide we wanted to watch one of them on the bigger telly upstairs ... but couldn’t as they weren’t recorded on the 1Tb TiVo upstairs.
However, with our two V6 TiVo connected not only do we record everything in HD thanks to the bigger, shared capacity but we can watch everything on either TV - perfect. I’ve even taken to recording all our movies on one box, keeping the other for everything else. It’s fantastic and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who has yet to take the leap.
What does everyone else like? Anyone used all six tuners yet (more if you have linked boxes)? Offline viewing on your tablet/computer? iPlayer you can watch the same day as you fire it up? The improved responsiveness of the new remotes? Anyone played with 4k content? Let me know.

21 comments:

The streaming to a device is probably the biggest change. Although there's still the same BS when it comes to streaming certain channels.

4K will be the biggest in future but there's no content yet. Not even the menu is 4K. I did try a 4K YouTube video and that ran well, but I wouldn't use that over other a PS4 or Apple TV for YouTube.

But honestly the box is so buggy. Almost every day this week I turn the box on and it either says no signal, or the menu works with a black screen for the picture. So I have to turn it off and on once or twice. It seriously needs an update.

I went through the Virgin web page to find out how much it was to upgrade to the V6 box. (I currently have XL/TiVo) I was quoted £60 installation and £40/month extra. This seems extortionate - can it be right?

Love my V6 but Netflix still isnt working...and I am not using a third party router. tech support tried sorting it but couldn't and now it's been escalated for 7 days.apart from that. the odd hiccup with no on demand or catch up sorted with a soft reset. 4k youtube looks great but my tv app has hdr support so watch it from there. once Netflix works it'll be great.

Same as others: loving the speed, Netflix integration & the ability to watch from other boxes. YouTube also more popular now. Just needs more 4K content. Good work VM ps not had one bug from day one either, lucky I guess

- streaming from a full Tivo box works really well (although took it's time to sync)- speed of use of interface- non IR remote means you don't need to point it at the box- 4K upscaling of normal HD channels looked very impressive on my 4K TV - though I've reverted to sticking the V6 through my xbox bypass HDMI port which means only watching HD in HD not upscaled (xbox only takes 1080p)- I've suffered from zero crashes of the V6 interface so far and had it for around 3 weeks now

Am I the only person to feel underwhelmed? Yes, the speed is welcome. But the box, or rather its software, is a big-ridden mess: I can't select favourites; despite the fact that auto-standby is turned off, daytime recordings don't happen; the box chokes if coming out of My Recordings to TV; it stutters when a recording starts or stops on the same channel one is watching; On Demand remains as flaky as ever; there continue to be SD menus; Netflix doesn't work (and no, I don't have DNS issues); catch-up services such as ITV Player and All4 are broadcast in the lowest level of SD... in other words, if VM didn't provide the best broadband service, I'd be away. The V6 boxes should have been provided as a free apology for the dire service provided by TiVo.

I currently have a 1Tb TiVo plus a 500mb TiVo (as well as still having a seldom used V+ box. Can I swap the 1Tb for a v6 - whilst keeping the 500mb older TiVo? Reasons for this are that my wife is reluctant to give up the programs she's already stored on her box, plus she's happy with the set-up she's already got without paying more for something she's unlikely to perceive as a benefit.

@spk Understand what you're saying, but a little confused by a few of your pointsDaytime recordings don't happen; I've had a Sky Cinema film split into two recordings (which were then nested in a folder) but other than that no problems with daytime recordingsThe box chokes if coming out of My Recordings to TV; I get less than a second's pause - does your's lock? The old TiVo would pause for a few seconds so it's an improvementit stutters when a recording starts or stops on the same channel one is watching; I don't get a stutter but a momentary pauseOn Demand remains as flaky as ever; I've not had this problem at all, but I have only used iPlayer and 4OD so farThere continue to be SD menus; Yes, albeit the infrequently used onesNetflix doesn't work; It does on one of my boxes but not the other. I still prefer using my Sony TV's Netflix, which is sharper.Catch-up services such as ITV Player and All4 are broadcast in the lowest level of SD; that's true on all platforms I think you'll find. I don't think they're the "lowest level of SD" (there are regular channels even worse) but that's not VM's fault. The loss of HD movies on Sky Movies is a real pain though - we used to have them, now they've gone and Virgin don't seem to be interested in getting them back :(I think both Sky Q and VM V6 have bugs but both are useable and an improvement on what went before.

@Griff From what I understand (and I don't work for Virgin) that would be fine - I was going to do the same myself originally, but went for two V6s in the end. My wife's recordings were all movies so we can re-record them fairly quickly. Give 150 a call to check what's available - it may depend on your broadband speed.

So we've turned off Auto-Standby. My wife has a series link for James Martin's new series. The first week of the series recorded on TiVo just fine. Since the V6 was installed on Friday, nothing records during the day. When we get home from work, the white light indicates that the V6 is on but when we turn on the TV, the V6 displays the 'starting up' message and channels are locked as 'unauthorised' for several minutes. I suspect this is a HDMI bug, where the TV, when switched off, is instructing the V6 to sleep. So poor implementation of ARC on the V6 may be to blame.

There is no excuse for pauses, black screens or stuttering on a modern platform — especially on powerful hardware. There is no excuse for SD menus anywhere on the platform — would Apple or Google tolerate such UI inconsistency on their platforms?

ITV Player has in the past streamed on HD on VM. I am mystified, however, by the risibly low bandwidth both ITV Player and All4 are allocated. If VM insists on charging more for bandwidth, no wonder we get a crap service from these platforms.

The fact that I am pushed to either the Amazon Fire TV box or Apple TV for superior versions of ITV Player and Netflix causes me — and my wife — to constantly question why I'm paying a premium price for a half-assed service.

My brother has Sky Q and there are none of the menu, transition glitches or recording cock-ups ascribed to that service. If it wasn't for Rupert Murdoch, I'd consider it.

As I say, the broadband speed keeps me with VM. But I am *tired* being a paying beta-tester for Virgin Media.

Just had mine installed about an hour ago. Wow.. what a difference. The speed of the interface is amazing. The picture quality is much better and clearer.

So far I haven't come across any bugs with the interface and the on demand content. I loaded up an episode of Lost (season one) from the on demand box sets to test it and it took just 2 seconds. The channel change is virtually instant as well, my TiVo would take a good 5-6 seconds to Change channel. I suppose I need to play for a bit longer but my initial impressions are very good and I'm a happy lad. Well played Virgin Media :)

Maybe I'm just lucky but for those having problems/finding bugs, ultimately, this is new hardware and it's almost a given that there will be bugs in the platform. Let's Just hope Virgin media update these V6 boxes more regularly than they do with the Tivo boxes.

I am loving the speed of the V6. I cannot pair my remote however, so its still using IR. Anyone know how to pair? I am going into Settings>Devices and holding 'Info' as instructed but it doesn't flash green...

To reset your remote, reboot the V6 and wait until the HOME screen is displayed. Then press and hold TV + Clear until you get a green light on top of the remote.Press Thumbs Down 3 times, then press OK twice. When you next press a button, the remote will pair with the V6 again.